Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking the high road on a letter from his Conservative predecessor Stephen Harper that says the current federal government has been caught ``napping on NAFTA.''
Asked about Harper's letter today, Trudeau refused to address it, citing his ongoing respect for the office of the prime minister and its previous occupants.
Trudeau would only say that Canada is continuing to work hard with its U.S. and Mexican counterparts to update and improve the decades-old trade deal, and that negotiations often produce different opinions and proposals.
Harper's letter contained one of the harshest opinions yet: that U.S. President Donald Trump is not bluffing when he threatens to abandon the trade pact, and that Canada has been too quick to reject American proposals.
Harper also wrote last week that negotiators have endangered the talks by insisting on negotiating alongside Mexico, and for promoting progressive priorities like labour, gender, aboriginal and environmental issues.
Canadian government officials have already dismissed the letter as a ``gift'' to U.S. negotiators and by insisting that capitulating to U.S. demands at the NAFTA table would be a tactical error.